Once past the hackneyed presentation of this co-op dungeon crawler there is a real meaty, moreish pleasure to be had. The key is solid combat – each of the three characters has basic, heavy and stun attacks, with special moves and collectible extras such as deployable turrets, which add to a contained but tactical system. As your enemies multiply it's more about crowd control than hacking and slashing, using stun and dodging furiously to make room for counterattacks. There's a pleasingly physical feedback to it all, especially when heaving exploding barrels (with sticky, satisfying results) or carelessly strewn giant buckets of poison at orc-ish foes.

Characters don't level up so much as get richer, gaining access to stronger weapons, shields and armour as they do. Levels can be replayed to grind currency and sniff out treasure-packed secret areas, and the sleek inventory system avoids maze-like management chores. But the focus on gold eventually does feel a little mercenary, especially since it's tied to your real bank balance – Crimson Alliance is free to demo, but the full game with a single character costs 800 Microsoft points, with all the characters 1,200. More cynically, after every couple of levels, players are tempted with a get-rich option (40,000 gold for 80 points).